An electrophoretic display (EPD) is a non-emissive device based on the electrophoresis phenomenon of charged pigment particles suspended in a solvent. The display usually comprises two plates with electrodes placed opposing each other and one of the electrodes is transparent. A suspension composed of a colored solvent and charged pigment particles dispersed therein is enclosed between the two plates. When a voltage difference is imposed between the two electrodes, the pigment particles migrate to one side or the other, causing either the color of the pigment particles or the color of the solvent to be seen, depending on the polarity of the voltage difference.
In order to obtain a desired image, driving waveforms are required for an electrophoretic display. A driving waveform consists of a series of voltages applied to each pixel to allow migration of the pigment particles in the electrophoretic fluid.
In the current driving system, when an image is to be updated, the display controller in the system compares the current image and the next image, finds appropriate waveforms in a look-up table and then sends the selected waveforms to the display to drive the current image to the next image. However, if after the command to drive the current image to the next image is received and before the updating is complete, there is a new command to update to a different desired image, this second command, however, does not automatically override the first command. This is due to the fact that after the selected waveforms have been sent to the display, the waveforms must be completed before a new command can be executed. In other words, the current driving system is not interruptible. In light of this shortcoming that updating of images could be slowed down when interruption occurs, the current method is particularly undesirable in a situation where user interaction with an electronic device (such as an e-book) is an essential feature.